Demonic Helper
by Will Rayne
Summary: Naruto is given a new chance by Roku to start anew in the world of the Avatar. Sadly things aren't always what they seem


**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Period.**

"Speaking"

"Thinking'

_**Summon/demonic speaking**_

**October 10th…**

The Kyuubi no Kitsune was attacking Konohagakure, the ninja of the village were doing there level best to try and hold the monstrous creature back from destroying their home.

"HOLD IT BACK! WAIT FOR THE HOKAGE!" one ninja yelled he went through a collection of hand signs and threw his most powerful jutsu at the beast. The spikes of earth made an attempt to skewer the giant fox but it was futile.

With the Hokage he was preparing for the final moments with his wife and child. "Kushina, I'll seal your remaining chakra way inside Naurto and from there I will then seal half the fox inside Naruto and take the other half with me to the next world." The blonde Hokage looked at his wife and new born son.

"Minata you don't have to do this, I can take the Kyuubi back into the seal and then kill myself." Kushina gave a cough as she said this. "I don't' have much time left so let me do what I can for Naruto and you."

"No, this is the best way. When the time comes you can reunite with Naruto, he is going to have to learn to control the fox someday I have a feeling." Minato went through a set of hand signs and then placed the foundation of the seal in his son's stomach. "Just remember on thing, I love you and Naruto more than anything else in this world." Without giving his wife a chance to try and change his mind, Minato use his famous jutsu and vanished from sight.

Once he arrived in from of the giant fox that was destroying his village another set of hand signs and he summoned his friend and ally the Boss Toad, Gamabunta.

"_**Kid, you had better have a damm good reason for calling me here.**_" The giant toad wore a blue vest, white obi with a sword tucking inside.

"Bunta, I need you to buy me some time while I prepare the final seal to seal the fox away." Minato held Naruto in his hands and then jumped off the large toad's head. On the ground he brought forth a ceremonial pedestal and began the task of sealing away the greatest of the biiju. "**Hakke Fuin**" with a flash of light the Kyuubi vanished.

With Kushina the tug on her soul was too much for her to take and with one last pull her soul was ripped from her body and it followed the Kyuubi's soul into her son.

When it was all over, all that was left was Minato standing over his son. "I'm sorry Naruto." Minato turned and saw his predecessor, "Hiruzen, make sure that Naruto is seen as the hero this day." With those last words the Yondaime Hokage died.

"Minato?" the Sandaime Hokage arrived at the place in which his successor had breathed his last. "You stupid fool." The Sandaime took off his helmet and then went to pick Naruto up from the pedestal on which he rested. "ANBU! Go find Kushina's body and bring the Yondaime to the village for proper burial." The older ninja looked down at the new born for the first time.

The baby was resting peacefully in his arms and it was clear the characteristics of his parents had been passed down to their son. He had bright blonde hair like his father but his facial structure was very similar to Kushina's. The only strange thing was the three crimson red stripes that lined his face. The a dash of leaves the retired Hokage appeared in his old office and sat down behind the desk that he had given up to Minato. Just as he was about to examine the newborn's seal, a collection of council members burst into the office spewing a thousand questions a minute.

"SILENCE!" the old man leaked a little killer intent (A/N will just be called KI… don't confuse with chi) and then waited for things to quite down. "As of now there are a few things that need to be settled. "First,I shall be retaking my place at Hokage. Second let it be known that this is a SS-ranked secret anyone mentioning what really happened with the Kyuubi today will be strung up like a bird for treason."

"What really happened?" one person asked.

"The Kyuubi was sealed away into a container."

"THAN WE MUST DESTROY IT!" the civilians all started yelling.

"Silence!" the reinstated Hokage yelled. "Anything the harms the container may disrupt the seal." All the ninja in the room immediately knew that the child laying on the desk was the container that the Hokage was talking about. The civilians were looking around for the container of the biiju hoping that later they could find a way to destroy it.

"Hokage-sama, is that Minato's son?" Hiashi Hyuuga looked at the child laying on the desk.

"Yes, this is his son. I also need to tack on another S-rank secret… Who this boy is cannot get out into the world. His father had too many ememies." Hiruzen looked at the boy with a sad look on his face. 'I'm sorry Naruto but it is for your own good.'

"Who will be looking after him? Minato was a good friend and I don't think his son should be left in some orphanage."

"Hiashi as much as I know that you would take good care of Naruto he must be kept under wraps."

"What is that Child doing here?" Homura looked at Naruto and noticed the seal on his stomach. "He sealed the demon into his son." The elder of the village said plainly. 'I'm sorry Minato we can't let the village know that Naruto is the container you sealed the Kyuubi in, I can't grant your dying wish.'

"Than we must kill it now before it gains strength and tries to kill us all again." This time a pink haired member of the council yelled as loud as possible. She jumped forward and tried to get her hand on the baby in the room. Naruto picked that moment to wake up and start crying.

"Stop. If you touch this child I will kill you myself here in this room." The Sandaime looked the council member right in the eyes, she could tell that he was serious. "Now all of you must leave. Tell the village about my decrees."

As the council filed out of the room it was clear that things weren't going to be easy for the new born. After making sure that the seal was stable the Hokage took Naruto to the orphanage and made the instructions very clear to the owner. Naruto is to be treated like every other child.

**TEN YEARS LATER…**

Naruto was walking down the streets of Konoha, after his day at the ninja academy, avoiding the cold and hateful looks and whispers of hate being shot his way. Dressed in a simple white t-shirt with the kanji for fire on the front and a pair of ratty black pants, Naruto also sported the common blue ninja shoes on his feet. Naruto had no clue what he had done to antagonize the entire village but what ever he had done must have been bad. The people of the village were always taking about his looks, Naruto could never understand why he looked the way he did but there was nothing he could do. He was born with the crimson marks on his face, the pointed ears were another mystery, or his two toned hair, most of his hair was blonde except the very tips of each one of his wild hair was crimson as well. He had woken up in the hospital after he was beaten and he had them. Naruto shrugged off the looks and made his way to get some of his favorite food, god's gift to man, RAMEN.

Naruto walked into his favorite ramen stand and was greeted happily by the owner and his daughter. Teuchi was a retired ninja who gave up the shinobi life after the Kyuubi had attacked ten years ago to take care of his daughter. His wife had died in the attack so it was an easy choice to give up the dangerous life of a ninja to make sure his daughter had at least on parent.

"Naruto, what can I get for you?"

"Two bowls of beef ramen." Naruto looked up at the older man with a very fox like grin. Naruto sat down on the stool and watched the cook go about his job. His daughter Ayame opened he back door and walked in with a crate of supplies. "Ayame, do you need help?" Naruto looked back at the slightly older girl and asked.

"No there is only one today Naruto. But thank you." Ayame gave Naruto big smile. She put the crate down and reached over the counter and patted the young blonde on the head. "So how is the ninja Academy going? Anyone speacil you'll be bringing by the stand?"

"Not so good. All the other kids hate me and no matter what I try the only ninja skill I can do is the henge jutsu." Naruto looked a little dejected. "No, I don't have a single person that likes me enough to give the time of day.

########### A little ways away######

ACHOOOO! A pale eyed girl hiding behind a lamp post sneezed.

########### Back to Naruto########

"Don't worry Naruto it takes time to get things down. With hard work and practice you will have the bunshin and kawarimi down." Teuchi gave Naruto a pat on the head to encourage the boy. "And just give the other kids a little more time, they'll come around."

"Thanks old man." Naruto waited for his food to be ready and after a few minutes the chef placed two bowls in front of Naruto who dug in with gusto.

After waving good bye to Teuchi and giving a hug to Ayame Naruto headed home to his run down apartment. The Hokage had given him this place to live after he was kicked out of the orphanage when he was six. As he slowly made hid way home Naruto looked up at the fading light from the sun. Naruto was never a big fan of the night, the endless stars made him feel even smaller.

A few blocks from his door Naruto turned and walked down his street. Just as he made the turn a blur came out of nowhere and with a quick chop knocked Naruto out cold.

When Naruto came around the first thing that he felt was ungodly pain. The pain of being beaten over and over with jutsu and knives, Naruto tried he best to fight back but that just made his attackers more angry. The beating continued well into the night each person taking their time slowly extracting every ounce of pain they could from the poor blonde.

Just as the final blow was about the be struck a large flash of light enveloped Naruto. The group of attackers did their level best to cover their eyes from the light and wait for it to fade.

**Spirit realm ….**

Naruto woke up in what looked like what he would describe heaven as, an area of endless clouds. "I'm dead?" Naruto looked down at his feet in defeat. "I don't want to die. I HAVE TO BECOME HOKAGE!" no matter how loud Naruto screamed this over and over it did very little to change his predicament.

"Calm yourself young one." A voice rang put through the clouds. Naruto turned to try and find the voice. He saw a old man with long white hair and beard with a topknot tied on the top of his head. He was dressed in long crimsom red rodes, with what looked like a flame design on the very front. Naruto slowly back away from the man as he approached. "I mean you no harm."

"Yea right. A lot of people say that then they just try and hurt me." Naruto turned and tried to find away back to his home.

"I give you my word. My name is Roku." The old man stopped advancing and looked at the scared boy. "What is your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, the Future Hokage!" Naruto turned towards Roku and pounded his chest as he said that.

"Naruto I have a question for you. Do you know why the villagers hate you so?"

"No but Jiji said that give them time and they will come around."

"Naruto, I'm sorry to tell you this but no matter what you do the way the village sees you will never change."

"Oh yea how the hell do you know?" Naruto turned away from Roku.

"Sadly I have foreseen what happens to you if you stay in this village." Roku walked over to the boy and stood in front of him. "If things continue that way they are you will die, Naruto."

"I'm already dead. That's why I'm here."

"No, I pulled you from your body so I could talk to you." Roku placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. He could see that the boy had taken his new quite hard. "I want to offer you a chance to start anew. A new life in my world, you have task to complete but after that you can live out your life how ever you see fit."

"I can't run away the masked people who follow me would never let me past the gates. I tried to run away once before." Naruto let out a few more tears.

"I know Naruto I have been watching your life for quite some time." Roku pulled the young boy into a hug. "I'm not asking you to make the choice right now."

"Really?"

"Yes, when you make your choice all you have to do is call my name." the old man stood up. Now we best get you back to your body your village leader has arrived.

"Wait you said you could tell me why the villagers hate me." Naruto wanted to know more than anything else.

"In time, I will tell you everything." Roku gave a kind wave as a light again enveloped Naruto. "I hope you make the right choice."

**Konoha….**

The light died down just in time for Naruto to see the Hokage arrive before he passed out from the pain.

"ANBU, disable everyone and give them to Ibiki. He has a long night ahead of him." The old man was dressed in his robes with the hat of the Hokage perched on his head. He walked over to Naruto's beaten body and slowlt picked him up and took him to the hospital.

Once Naruto was safely in a hospital bed covered in bandages he snapped his fingers and a different squad of ANBU appeared. "Who was in charge of Naruto's protection detail?"

"Sir, it was Hawk and Wolf." The dag faced ANBU told his boss. "

"Find them and give them to Ibiki as well. Make sure he leaves enough for me to talk to them." The ANBU nodded then vanished. "Naruto I hope you are OK." The Hokage shut the door and then looked at the three ANBU standing outside the door.

"Sir, what are your orders?"

"Two at the door, and one at the window." The old man gave the three a cold glare. "No one is to go into this room, except his doctor. Is the CLEAR!" the last part wasn't a question.

"YES SIR." All the guards snapped to attention.

"Good, I will come and check on Naruto in the morning." The old man walked away.

The next morning Naruto was sitting up in his hospital bed looking around. It was the same room that he always had when ever he got sent to the hospital. He looked around and saw the wrinkled face of the Hokage.

"Morning Naruto." The old man smiled at the young boy. The blonde snapped around and looked at his grandfather figure.

"Jiji, how did I get here?"

"I brought you here"

"I had the weirdest dream, it was like some old guy was telling me that there was a reason that the villagers hate me."

"Naruto I can assure you that this hatred for you will pass in time." The old man again forced a nice smile on his face.

"It was like this guy was going to take me way and give me a whole new life."

"IT was just a dream Naruto." The Sandaime ran a hand along his jaw and smoothed out his small beard. "The doctor said once you were awake you could leave, so let's get you out of here."

"Ok, Jiji." Naruto hopped out of the bed and slowly got dressed. He was still in a lot of pain from the beating. Once he was dressed Naruto and the Hokage walked out of the hospital and towards the ninja academy.

"I talked to Iruka for you and told him you were going to be a little late."

"Thanks, I guess that I don't want to miss out on a day of training if I'm going to be Hokage."

"That's right." Hiruzen looked ahead of him and saw the packed streets leading to the academy. As they walked people greeted the Hokage as he walked by but not one person even acknowledged that Naruto was right there.

Once they arrived at the academy Naruto walked to his classroom and took a seat in the back row without disturbing the rest of the class. The rest of the day went by pretty fast and before Naruto knew it it was time to head home for the day.

Naruto slowly made his way towards Ichiraku for his daily meal of ramen when he caught a hint of lavender in the air. He turned around and tried to spot the source of the smell but it was quickly overcome by the smell of ramen and his hunger.

While Naruto ate his ramen, the pale eyed girl from the day before was again hiding from her crush. She had stayed hidden longer because of Naruto's sudden action and she didn't want to be caught stalking him. (A/N please note that I will not write the stuttering. Everyone knows what she sounds like from the anime or reading other fics)

"Hinata-sama" a voice from behind her made Hinata jump. "Your father wishes you to see him." Hinata looked at the man standing behind her. He was dressed in a simple brown set of shirt and pants with long brown hair tied back in a pony tail tied at the base of his neck.

"I'm on my way." Hinata looked down at the ground and pushed her two index fingers together. She began the walk back to the Hyuuga compound and then into her father's study. "You wished to see me father."

"Yes, the elders have decided that it is time to officially name the heir to the head of the family. Tonight you and your sister will duel for the right to succeed me as the head of the Hyuuga clan." Hiashi told his daughter in a cold tone.

"I understand father." Hinata turned at then left her father's study and slowly made her way to her room. She got inside, shut the door then broke down. Hinata hated the spars that she had with her little sister, she hated the fact that they could seriously injure each other if something went wrong. Hinata sat in her room until a member of the branch family came and retreved her.

Hinata slowly got up and wiped the tears from her eyes and then straightened her large tan coat. She dusted off her navy blue pants then opened the door and headed towards the training hall to the fight that would change her life.

**The Next Day…**

When Naruto arrived at the academy the next morning he was greeted by a dozen glares and a happy hello from Iruka. The chuunin wore standard Konoha ninja garb; navy pants and shirt with wrappings around the bottom of the pants leg's leading into the blue ninja sandals. His brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, but the most notable feature was the large scar across his nose.

Naruto looked around and saw that there was an open seat up in the corner. Naruto slowly walked up to the seat and then sat down. He looked to his left and saw Hinata sitting there. "Morning Hinata." Naruto gave the girl a wave.

"Good morning Naruto." She never looked up from the floor as she greeted him. It was then that Naruto noticed the bandages wrapped around Hinata's forehead.

"What happened?" Naruto poked the girl on the shoulder and tried to get her attention. Hinata just started turning red and then fell onto the table out cold. "Hinata? Iruka-sensei I think something is wrong with Hinata."

"Can you take her to the nurse's office Naruto?" Iruka was organizing things in the front of the room.

"Sure" Naruto wrapped Hinata's an arm around his neck then slowly made his way to the nurse's office. On the way to the nurse's office Naruto again picked up on the smell of lavender, but it was much stronger this time. Naruto just shook his head and focuses on where he was going. After he dropped Hinata off in the care of the nurse Naruto returned to class. It wasn't long before Hinata returned and took her seat next to Naruto.

Later that day was a sparing match between all the members of the class. Each person was paired up with someone and then they spared in front of Iruka who would give tips and help after each spar was done.

Naruto had drawn a lucky number and was fighting against a boy who came from a civilian family so he only had the academy taijutsu to go on. While Naruto didn't have any formal training he did have experience in a fight, so with a bunch a sloppy punched Naruto beat his opponent.

Hinata on the other hand had not been as lucky and got paired with a rather nasty girl who had a tendency to bully the other girls in the class. Hinata slipped into her juuken stance and got ready for a attack. The other girl was quite a bit bigger then Hinata so she just charged right up and tackled the lavender eyed girl. Hinata did her best to get away from the girl, but the bigger girl pulled Hinata into a head lock and did her best to make sure that Hianta didn't get way. With one big push Hinata slipped out of the head lock but the bandages wrapped around her head didn't come with her. It took Hinata a few seconds to notice that the bandages were gone and when she did she quickly turned and ran way.

Iruka quickly sent the rest of the students inside and then he took after Hinata. Naruto was cutious about what the bandages so after everyone else went inside he took off in the direction that Hinata went as well. A little while later Naruto found Hinata curled up in a bush not for from the academy.

"Hinata?" Naruto kneeled down and crawled into the bush. "What is the matter?"

"Naruto?" Hianta stuttered. "Why are you here?"

"I came looking for you?" Naruto sat next to the distraught girl. "I was wondering why you ran away?" Naruto asked. He looked at Hinata who had her coat pulled up over her head. Naruto slowly reached out with a hand and pulled her jacket down. There on her forehead was a green design.

"Don't look at it." Hinata turned and tried to cover her forehead.

"What is it?"

"My family has a seal that they put on the members of the branch family to keep them in line." Hinata never looked at Naruto.

"But your Hiashi's daughter, I know he is the head of your family so why do you have this seal thingy?"

"Last night I had to fight my sister for the place as heir to the Hyuuga family." Hinata then turned and buried her face in Naruto's sleeve. "I had to fight my little sister, and I couldn't bring myself to fight her."

"So they slapped this thing on you because you're nice?" Naruto tentatively put an arm around Hinata's shoulder and gave her a one armed hug.

"I've been placed in the side house." Hinata's tears were soaking Naruto's shirt. She sat there crying, it never occurred to her that the person she was telling all this to was the one person that she normally fainted around.

"I don't think going back to school would be the best idea. You should go home." Naruto stood up and then helped pull Hinata out of the bushes. At a slow and easy pace Naruto led the lavender smelling girl back to her home.

There was one small problem with that plan, along the way back to the Hyuuga compound they passed a large group of people. The people saw the bane of their village and one of the famous Hyuuga clan. So they jumped to the worst case conclusion, the demon was kidnapping a Hyuuga for its own evil purposes.

"DEMON!" the group charged the two and picked up anything that could be used as a weapon. Once they got to where the two were they ripped Hinata out of Naruto's grip. "How dare you try and kidnap one of the Hyuuga." The group set to work beating Naruto with in a inch of his life. Hinata saw this and watched in horror as the mob brought out every nasty trick they could think of and use it against Naruto.

Naruto looked around and noticed then that there was no way of escaping this mob. He tried to protect himself but with the little training he did have was no enough to beat the group of angry villagers. With a defeated look in his eyes he saw the girl that he had tried to be nice to try and step in and protect him "Hi..Na…Ta… Don't"

"The demon has brainwashed the Hyuuga." One mob member shouted and then turned the piece of wood that he was beating Naruto with and hit Hinata across the head with it.

Naruto watched in disbelief as Hinata fell to the ground and a small puddle of blood formed on the ground under her head. "Y**O**U **B**A**S**T**A**R**D**S!**!**" Naruto yelled. A powerful gust of wind blew the mob off Naruto as he tried to stand up.

"Silence you foul demon!" One person yelled. The person used a broom to knock Naruto's legs out from under him so Naruto was flat on his back. The mob quickly stepped on his arms so he couldn't get up.

All the commotion had attracted the attention of a group of ninja passing by. "What is going on here?" one ninja asked.

"The demon brainwashed a Hyuuga and was trying to kidnap her." The leader of the mob stated.

"Really?" the ninja pulled out a long kunai and then turn towards Naruto. "Let's kill this thing once and for all." He brought the kunai down to plunge it into Naruto's heart.

As Naruto watched the kunai make it's slow decent towards his heart the words of the old man floated through his head. '.._all you have to do is call out my name_..' Naruto decided that there was little chance that the Hokage would show up in time to stop the man from killing him so he did just that. 'ROKU!' just as the kunai was about to piece his skin he was pulled from his body.

**Spirit Realm…**

"I see you have made your choice." The old man picked Naruto up from the clouds.

"I have one question can you help me save Hinata?" Naruto looked worried. "She got hurt because she tried to help me."

"Come with me." Roku turned and began walking. He came upon a giant red dragon. "Fang I need you to take my to Limbo." The dragon snorted and then bowed his head so that Roku and Naruto could climb on.

Fang stopped just as the clouds ended and a large gray area took over as far as the eye could see. Just on the line between the two areas was Hinata, she was looking around with a confused look on her face.

"Roku how much time do we have before I need to go back?"

"you have time to talk to her."

"If I accept this chance to start over can I have one thing."

"You want to know if I can send this girl with you."

"Kinda, if she wants to go back to her life I will give my life to save her's" Naruto looked Roku right in the eyes. He could see the seriousness behind his words.

"You truly are one of a kind." Roku gave a short laugh. "Ask her, it will be up to her that your fate rests." Roku stepped back. "Just don't cross the border of the worlds." Naruto nodded and then turned to walk the short way to where Hinata was.

"Hinata, can you hear me?" Naruto shouted. Across the line into limbo.

"Naruto" Hinata started stuttering. "What is going on?"

"Hinata I have a question for you? I need your honest answer" Naruto looked down at the border between them.

"What?" Hinata asked.

"Are you happy?" Naruto asked plainly. "If you had a chance to start over would you take it?"

"I don't understand?"

"I mean if you could have a life somewhere away from Konoha, would you like to?" Naruto looked back at Roku.

"Like run away from the village?"

"No in a different world than ours, just you and me." Naruto blushed at that thought, alone with a cute girl like Hinata.

"Away from the village?" Hinata stuttered. "A new world with just me and you?"

"Yea, I know it is kinda a big choice to make but we don't have a lot of time." Naruto told the lavender smelling girl.

"I would be free from the seal?"

"Pretty sure."

"I'll do it Naruto. Thank you." Hinata tried to hug Naruto but was stopped. The border of Limbo and the Spirit world was still in between them. "What is wrong?"

"I'll go get Roku." Naruto turned and headed off to find the older man. A little ways away Naruto found the old man "She said that she would like to come with me, but she tried to cross the border and was forced back."

"It's ok, only one of the avatars can allow her passage into this world." Roku explained. Naruto just looked confused but then followed Roku back to the boarder where Hinata was waiting. "Just take my hand" Hinata slowly accepted the old hand of Roku and then was pulled across the boarder of the two worlds.

"Now what happens?" Naruto asked Roku as he let go of Hinata's hand. "OOF" Hinata had thrown herself into Naruto's chest and wrapped her arms around his chest.

"Thank you" Hinata repeated this over and over into Naruto's chest.

"Hinata it is the least I could do." Naruto slowly put his arms around the girl and hugged her.

"Well now I think that we should head to the realm of Souls." Roku tapped the two kids on the shoulder and then motioned for them to follow him. "I will take you to the border of this realm and the realm of Souls."

"What are we going to do there?"

"Help you get prepared for the new world that you will be placed in." Roku slid in behind Fang's head and then waited for the two kids to do the same.

"Ok, how long till we het there?"

"Not long." Roku tapped Fang on the head and then they took off. As the little group traveled Naruto asked Roku question after question. But the older man just kept dodging them. "Naruto when we get to the Realm of Soul all will be made clear."

"Fine." Naruto sat back and watched the clouds pass beneath him.

After a while Fang slowed down and then landed. They had come to a boarder again but instead of the gray that the previous one this one was a feudal Japanese village.

"This is as far as I can go, once you cross over a new guild will be waiting to guild you to where you need to go." Roku helped the two kids off the dragon. Naruto turned and thanked Roku while Hinata gave a deep bow. Hinata went over to the front of the red dragon and gave it a pat on the snout.

"Thank you for the ride" Hinata thanked the dragon then followed Naruto to the boarder of the realm. "Thank you Roku."

"It was my honor." Roku gave a wave and then vanished like dust along with Fang.

"Lets go." Naruto held out his hand and waited for Hinata to take it. Hinata slowly gripped his hand then they walked across the boarder of the realms. Once they were fully across they looked around for what they thought looked like a guild.

**In Konoha…**

"Lord Hokage they are dead. Both Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga are dead." The dag faced ANBU reported. The man removed his mask only to revela another on underneath. "I can't believe it, Sensei's son is dead."

"I know Kakashi." The sandaime looked at the two bodies. Naruto's was broken and bruised. Hinata had one wound a large gash on the side of her head, but she had bled out onto the streets. Both were now covered with white sheets but it was a sad day when two kids were killed in their own village.

"Lord Hokage, I heard you found Naruto and Hinata?" Iruka came running.

"Yes, we found them." The Sandaime couldn't bring himself to look IRuka in the eye. "Iruka what happened wasn't your fault."

"What do you mean? Did Naruto pull another stupid prank?"

"Iruka, they are dead." The old Hokage was on the verge of going on a killing spree.

"What? How can that be I saw them no more than an hour ago." Iruka pushed past his leader and towards the first sheet covered body. He lifted the sheet a little and peeked underneath. "Oh, Kami."

"I know, I have a large group of them in custody."

"How could they do this they were just kids."

"KAMI BLESS US WE HAVE KILL THE DEMON! KAMI SHALL…." A kunai was lodged in the man's throat and heart. One from Iruka the other from Kakashi.

"Lord Hokage, I have something to give you." Iruka covered Naruto's body again and then stood up. He walked over to his leader and then untied the headband from his forehead. "I quit, I'm leaving this village." Iruka turned and walked away. "Mark me as a missing nin or what ever I refuse to live in a place that kills two children for something they had no control over."

Hiruzen stood in shock, he was holding Iruka's headband not knowing what to do. At that exact instant he had never felt as old.

Later that day the Hokage recalled Jiraiya and Tsunade. He had made it on order so neither could refuse to come. Once the two had arrived a meeting of the Council was called and there he explained the terrible thing that the village had done. Once the council meeting was over he called a village wide meeting and then announced the true heritage of the boy they had treated like the spawn of the devil. The Son of the Village's greatest Hero was dead at their hand. With that Hiruzen stepped down from his position as Hokage letting the hat he had worn with pride for so long hit the ground and walked out of the village alongside his last two students.

** Realm of souls…**

"HEY! KIDS!" a loud voice rang out from off the their right. "I'm your guild." Naruto and Hinata looked at the woman standing in front of them. She had long strawberry blonde hair and dull blue eyes. She wore a black shihakusho with a pink scarf wrapped around her shoulders, she also had a sword strapped to her back. The big thing that the two kids noticed was the amount of cleavage that the woman was showing. Both Hinata and Naruto turned bright red, both for different reasons. Hinata was shocked at the lack of modesty of the woman and Naruto was about a few good boob jiggles away from an erupting nosebleed. "I'm Rangiku Matsumoto." She then turned and began walking away. "Follow me." Hinata began to follow but Naruto was rooted in place, so Hinata had to act quickly so they didn't get lost so he grabbed her crush and pulled him along.

"So where are we going?" Hinata asked politely.

"I'm taking you to District 5 of north Rukon." Rangiku looked back and noticed that Hinata was still dragging Naruto. Rangiku raised a hand and slapped Naruto in the back of the head. "Wake up, don't make your girlfriend carry you."

"She's not my girlfriend. She is just a friend." Naruto snapped back at the other blonde. He didn't notice the dark cloud hanging over Hinata's head as he said that.

"Sure kid." Rangiku then picked both kids up by the collar and then used her flash step to travel quicker. In a little while later they arrived at a large house. "Well here we are." Rangiku dropped Naruto on his face but she gently put Hinata down. When they arrived at their destination the sun was going down so Rangiku had to get back before he half pint taicho got mad.

"HEY" Naruto shouted as he picked himself up. "You COW!" Naruto yelled. What he didn't expect was to get hit by two punched. One was from Rangiku and the other was from some unknown woman who walked out of the house.

"WHATDIDYOUCALLME?/NARUTOUZUMAKISAYYOURSORRY!" both woman yelled at Naruto. Rangiku looked at the woman and smiled. "He's all yours."

"Hold on a second, Matsumoto-san." The woman who hit Naruto picked Naruto up by the front of the shirt and then turned him around so he was face to face with Rangiku. "Now apologize."

"NO"

"Do it NOW!"

"YOU AIN'T MY MOTHER!"

"YOU BET YOUR SORRY ASS I AM!" this caused both Naruto to turn his head in almost 180 degrees. "Now be a good little boy and apologize to the nice lady." Not yet sure to believe the fact that she may be his mother Naruto really didn't want to piss the lady off anymore, Naruto let out a loud rumble. "LOUDER!" Kushina yelled at her son.

"I'm sorry." Naruto didn't look Rangiku in the eyes but it was good enough. Rangiku smiled at the other woman then vanished again with shunpo. "Can you let go of me?" Kushina dropped him and then she dusted off her simple green yukata and a red obi. She waited for him to get back on his feet before pulling him into a hug. After a minute Naruto's face was turning blue and he was trying to tap out.

"Excuse me, but I think Naruto needs air" Hinata tapped the redhead on the arm.

"Do I know you? You look really familure." Kushina let her son taste air again as she studied Hinata. "You aren't the daughter of Hinako Hyuuga are you?"

"Yes, that was my mother's name." Hinata looked at Kushina.

"You look exactly like she did at your age." Kushina gave the timid girl a soft smile. "Why don't you come inside." Kushina led the two kids inside. Once they got inside and took off their shoes they were led into the sitting room. Kushina left them there as she went into the kitchen to get something to drink.

"Honey what was with all the racket outside?" a mess of blonde hair stuck his head into the sitting room. "Oh hi." The blonde walked in to the room and them across to the kitchen. He was dressed in all the same clothing that he normally wore without his head band or white haori. Both Naruto and Hinata were speechless as to who had just walked through the room with them in it.

"Ok, I have tea and crackers." Kushina walked into the room and then set them down on the table. "Kids?" Kushina waved a hand in front of Naruto's face. After a few second both came to and looked at the two adults sitting across from them. One was unmistakable the Yondaime Hokage the hero of the village the one that defeated the Kyuubi. The other claimed to be Naruto's mother.

"Well were should we start?" Minato looked at his wife.

"At the beginning." Kushina stated.

"Wait, if by some chance you're my mother" Naruto pointed at Kushina. "And you called her 'Honey', than that makes you my…"

"Father. Yes Naruto, I am your father." Minato looked away from his son and waited for some sort of violent reaction. He had to know that he had sealed the Kyuubi inside of him, and that he was the reason that his life was miserable.

"Than why was I treated worse than trash?" Naruto looked at both his 'parents'. He wasn't sure that he could call them that just yet.

"You don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Naruto on the night that you were born the Kyuubi attacked the village." Kushina started.

"Yea I know. The Hokage gave his life to fight and destroy the mighty beast but in the course of doing so he gave up his own life for the sake of the village." Naruto told the three of them. "We know the history behind that night."

"But that story isn't completely true. It is true I died fighting the Kyuubi, but I gave up my life to seal the Kyuubi away to save the Village. I chose a new born baby and sealed the mighty beast inside the new born. My last words were that he be treated like a hero for keeping the beast at bay from destroying the village." Minato explained what really happened that night.

"Me, you chose me." Naruto threw himself across the table with a growl and punched his so called father as hard as he possibly could. Once that punch landed he pulled back his other fist and started beating the man who had caused him so much pain with everything that he could. "YOU BASTARD!" With all his might Naruto threw a uppercut right at Minato's jaw. There was a load crack and both Kushina and Hinata looked at the pair with shock. Neither was sure what cracked Naruto's hand or Minato's jaw. A second later Naruto fell of his father with tears streaming down his face, he was holding his hand, but the tears were not from pain but the emotions that Naruto had been bottling up for so long had come pouring out. Kushina and Hinata quickly rushed to Naruto's side to make sure that he was ok.

"I guess I deserve that." Minato stood up and walked out of the room. He knew that his son was not ready to talk to him just yet. He needed to give his son time, and that was one thing they had a little to spare.

For the next hour or so Kushina had to watch as her son cried on the shoulder of Hinata, she was blushing the entire time but she had to put up a strong front for Naruto. Once Naruto had calmed down, he looked at the person he was hugging and a matching blush spread across his face. "It's ok, Naruto-kun. You have been holding it in for so long." Hinata stuttered out.

"Thank you, Hinata-chan." Naruto pulled Hinata into a hug and now it was time for her classic Naruto is touching me moment and she fainted. Kushina couldn't help but giggle at the sight. Naruto shot a cold glance over at Kushina. He picked Hinata up and carried her over to the couch. Once he was sure that she would be ok then he turned to Kushina.

"So let's get this over with, what is your story." Naruto had put up a cold mask over his face. Kushina did the best she could and explained everything to him, from her being the host before him, to the masked man removing the Kyuubi, to the final moments of her life. Naruto stood up and then walked over to Kushina, he pulled her into a hug. "Ka-san" Naruto kept repeating that word over and over. Kushina was all to happy to have he son calling her that so she returned the hug. This hug lasted for quite a while until Hinata woke up and stumbled across the most touching thing she had ever seen.

"Naruto, why don't you introduce me to your friend." Kushina let go of her son reluctantly.

"Mom, I want you to meet Hinata Hyuuga."

"Ah, his only ten and already bringing girls home to meet his parents." Kushina laughed at her son as he turned bright red, his face was easily matched by Hinata's. "I'm kidding relax." Both kids looked at the red head with a small amount of hatred. "So I guess you want to know why you're here not in this new world Roku promised you."

"Yes, that would be nice." Naruto picked up one of the crackers that were still on the plate from when he lunged across it.

"This world that you will be sent to is a lot different than our. There is no ninjustus or genjustus. Taijustu is a lot different because there are people there that can control the very elements."

"Really?" Naruto looked at his mother in shock.

"Yes but each person is only allowed to control one element. These benders as they call them are quite skilled in their respected elements." Kushina started explaing things for them. "Now the Avatar is able to master all for Elements and through him peace is achieved."

"Roku mentioned something about a task that I would have to finish before I could live my life." Naruto said.

"Yes, well you see the Avatar has been MIA for the around one hundred years. Your task is to help the Avatar in bringing balance back to the world. Hinata I don't think you have to worry about this because the task falls to Naruto."

"I'll help Naruto, when the time comes." Hinata said without a stutter. A proud look on her face.

"It's ok Hinata I don't want to put you into danger again." Naruto was worried about Hinata he had almost gotten her killed once and he never wanted that to happen again.

"Naruto, it is her choice." His mother gave him a cold look. "While you hare hear you will be trained in a form of be bending. Well Hinata will be I don't quite know what is going to happen with Naruto."

"Why can't I just train gin bending?" Naruto was puzzled.

"I think we need to get Lord Rikudou to explain that to you." Kushina told her son. "Now don't get me wrong you will be training but just not in any form of bending."

"Why does it have something to do with the Kyuubi?"

"A little. Look in the morning Rikudou-sama will be here and he can explain everything to you." Kushina stood up. "I best show you where you'll be sleeping." Naruto's mother left the room and waited by the stairs, Naruto offered a hand to Hinata and they followed Kushina up the stairs.

"So are you a bender ka-san?"

"No, people here have no need for bending. We are just living her until it is time for our reincarnation." Kushina walked over to the closet and pulled out a futon. "Hinata this will be your room. You can do what ever you like with it while you're here." After leaving Hinata to get situated in her new room Kushina dragged her son out and across the hall into a full decorated room.

"What I don't get to design my own room?" Naruto looked a little downtrodden.

"Naruto you never got to live in the room I prepared for you in Konoha so when I heard that you might be coming back I wanted you to have a room prepared." Kushina was a little upset that her son was disappointed about not getting the bare room. She was about to sulk out of the room when her son wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Thanks ka-san." Naruto let go and then went over to the bed and threw himself onto it. Kushina smiled and then left so her son could have some privacy. She slowly walked down the stairs and started looking for her husband. She found him going through his taijutsu katas in the backyard.

"Our son has one nasty right hook." Minato lifted his shirt and exposed a fist sized bruise. "He gets that from you."

"I know. So did you contacted Rikudou-sama?"

"Yea he'll be by in the morning to explain everything to Naruto." Minata looked at the ground. "I feel like shit, my own son, I left my own son in the hands of people who beat him."

"Yea, but how were we to know that the village would completely ignore you last request." Kushina hugged her husband. "I still wonder how he is going to take the news about the flaws in the seal."

"I hope it isn't me that he takes that anger out on. I think he may have bruised the bone on that last uppercut." Minato rubbed his chin with a wince.

"Ah is my big bad ninja afraid of his ten year old son?"

"Hey you take one of his punches and we'll see whose laughing." Minato grabbed his wife by the waist and then lifted her up and into his arms. After about five minutes of messing around the married couple went inside to prepare for bed, after saying goodnight to the children both parents went into their own room. Minato was a little gloomy when he stuck his head inside his son's room only to get a ice cold glare.

The next morning Kushina was half way done with breakfast when her husband walked into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Morning, Honey." He whispered into her ear.

"Sunshine, how are you this fine morning?"

"Wishing I could get a less hateful glare from my only son."

"Time, give him time." Kushina pushed the cooking utensil into her husbands hand. "Finish up, I'll go make sure that Hinata is awake."

Once Kushina got upstairs she knocked on Hinata's door and found the girl slowly getting out of bed. "Morning Hinata."

"Uzumaki-san" Hinata responded.

"Please just call me Kushina." The redhead told the girl. "Now come on I may have a few things that fit you better than that." Kushina pointed to the pile of clothing at the end of Hinata's futon.

"No, it's fine." Hinata made a dash for her clothing but Kushina grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her out of her room. Twenty minutes later Hinata emerged from the master bed room wearing a navy yukata with a tan obi. It showed off the ever so slightly developing curves of Hinata.

"Funny thing is that is one of my seducing outfits." Kushina giggled to herself. "Don't worry its fists you just fine it was meant to be a short dress in a full grown woman but on a ten year old no one will know the difference." Hinata blushed at the thought. "We'll go into town and get you some clothing while Naruto is busy."

"It's ok, I can just wash my clothing each night."

"No, you are going to be here a while so it only seems right that you have your own clothing." Kushina then dragged Hinata downstairs into what might as well have been a blizzard. Naruto was bringing the temperature of the room down each passing second, as he glared at his father. "Naruto can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure ka-san." Naruto slipped out of his seat and followed Kushina into the next room.

"Look I understand that you are mad at your father." Kushina placed a hand in his shoulder. "But he did what he thought was necessary, he thought that the people would respect his dying wishes." Naruto refused to believe it. "If he knew than hew would have let the village be destroyed and escaped with you."

"I don't believe you. That man is the reason that I was beaten on a near daily basis." Naruto looked at his mother in the eyes. "I blame him for Hinata almost being killed."

"What?"

"I was trying to get Hinata back to her house after something happened at the academy. On the way to the Hyuuga compound a group of villagers saw me with her and attacked." Naruto was getting mad just thinking about what happened. "She tried to stop them and one of them turned around and… and…"

What happened sweetheart?" Kushina pulled Naruto into a hug.

"He took a full swing with a wooden board. It hit her so hard that in a few seconds there was a puddle of blood around her head." Naruto gripped the back of his mother's yukata and began crying again. I tried to get to her but I couldn't. They pinned me down and were about to kill men when I called out to Roku." Naruto's eyes flashed red for a second, the very thought of what happened to Hinata was brining out the youkai of the Kyuubi.

"What happened after that?"

"I told Roku that I would give up my life as payment to send Hinata back to Konoha if she wanted to. She was stuck in some place called Limbo." That had caught Kushina's attention, Hinata was on the verge of dying when she chose to go with Naruto. If they had waited even a minute more than she may have been whisked away to heaven. Naruto let go of his mother's yukata and looked her in the eyes. She could see the sadness and loneliness that he went through staring right into her eyes.

"I'm here, you can tell me anything."

"I hate myself more than I hate tou-san." Naruto walked over to the couch and sat down with his head in his hands. "If I had just left her alone, not tried to follow her, just tell Iruka-sensei where to find her, or if I had never been born. If any thing hadn't happened Hinata would still be safe and with her family, alive, not on the streets bleeding to death because of me. You and tou-san would still be alive."

SLAP!

"NARUTO NAMIKAZE-UZUMAKI, I NEVER WANT TO HEAR THOSE WORDS COME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH AGAIN! DO I MAKE MYSELF PERFECTLY CLEAR!"

Naruto looked up at his mother with a shocked look on his face, he saw the faces of the many people who beat him back in Konoha so he looked away. He didn't know what to do, run away and never look back or try and fight back. He had been on the receiving end of blows many a time but he always knew what to do when one hit. He listened to his instincts and they had saved his life before. Before his instincts automatically made the choice for him, a pair of arms wrapped around his neck and a mane of red hair invaded his vision.

"Naruto, what you did makes you who you are. The world wouldn't be a better place if you weren't in it. Your father and I might be dead anyway there is no way of telling what could have been. Look forward at what can be, you have the chance at a bright new future where nothing can control you." Kushina held her son in the hug. After a few minutes she picked him up as she sat on the couch and then put him on her lap. She did her best to calm her son down by rocking him back and forth. They stayed like this for some time before it was clear that Naruto wasn't going to do anything rash. "Now let's get some breakfast" Kushina put her son down and then led him by the hand back to the kitchen.

Breakfast was quite as the four ate in silence no one wanted to bring up what just happened and that eliminated the chance of there being any sort of conversation. After the dishes were taken care of Kushina took a hold of Hinata and led her out of the house towards the shopping district. This left a very awkward scene at the house with Naruto and his father sitting around waiting for the Rikudou Sennin to show up. Minato did the one thing that relaxed him at times like this he stood up and walked outside and began running through his katas again.

"Do you think that you could show me some taijutsu?" Naruto had walked out back to see his father running through his fighting style.

"I don't see why not. I would have started your training long before if things hadn't gone the way they did."

"I'm sorry." Naruto shoved his hands back into his pockets and then turned around to head back inside."

"Wait Naruto, that's not what I meant." Minato tried to catch his son before he slammed the door to the house. "Fuck… I have some sort of footinmouthitus don't I?" Minato asked himself. He finished his kata and then headed inside to fines his son. But no matter where he looked he couldn't hind him.

Naruto sat on the roof of his parents house. He had snapped at his father again and he knew that wasn't what he meant when he said that. But Naruto had been at the receiving end of the blame for everything that went wrong for an entire village for his entire life. Naruto lay back and looked up at the sky an watched the clouds pass over head. He stayed like the for quite some time.

"So what is on your mind? You seem to be carrying a lot of weight on your shoulders for one so young." A voice entered Naruto's ear and he quickly jumped up and threw a punch at the source.

Thwack.

The voice caught Naruto's punch with no effort. "For such a youngling you have a lot of power behind those fists of yours." Naruto looked at the man holding his fist. He was at least in his late nineties if not a hundred years old. White hair sticking out in every direction with two looking like horns. He was dressed in all white gi under a gray haori with a necklace made of brown beads. His eyes were what really scared Naruto they were purple with a bunch of circles surrounding the pupil.

"Who are you?" Naruto tried to pull his fist back but the old man was too strong. "This is private property, I'll have to ask you to leave or I'll call the guards." Naruto tried to scare the old man.

"To bad your father contacted me and asked me to come by today."

"You still haven't answered my first question, who the hell are you?" Naruto threw a kick at the old man. This too was blocked and now Naruto was caught in a very awkward position.

"I think we better take this down to the ground." the old man jumped off the roof taking Naruto with him. "Now to answer your question, I'm the Rikudou Sennin."

"Bullshit."

"Well not only do you have a good amount of strength in your punch you have rotten little mouth. You kiss your mother with that?" the old man laughed at Naruto.

"You can go screw yourself."

"Wow, to disrespect your elder so badly."

"What is going on here?" Minata stuck his head out the door and saw the old man. "Rikudou-sama, thank you for coming on such short notice."

"You really want me to believe that this old geezer is the famous father of Ninjutsu?" before Naruto could do anything the old man placed a hand on Naruto's head and looked right in his eyes.

**Mindscape…**

"So this is the seal that keeps Kurama locked away?" the old man was standing with Naruto in front of the cage that kept the Kyuubi at bay. "Kurama have you been a bad boy?" he said this with a large smile on his face.

"Screw you old man." The giant fox growled at the old man. This only lasted for a second because both the giant fox and the old man started laughing. "I could never keep a straight face around you, you old fart."

"Well Kurama tell me do you wish to have your freedom?"

"OF course, but the bastard who did this seal use the fucking Shinigami to do it." The giant fox swore from behind his cage.

"You seem to forget that I help create the very thing that seals you away." The old man smiled.

"Fine just get my out of here and back to Inari's forest."

"I'll get right in it but before that happens I kneed you to confirm something for me."

"What?"

"This young man refuses to believe that I am the Rikudou Sennin. If you could give me a little back up."

"The kit?" Kurama gave Naruto a large toothy grin. "You'll make a fine Kitsune, kit." The Fox then laid his head on his paws and then stated one thing really clear. "This old fart is the one and only Rikudou Sennin, kit. I know it is hard to believe but I wouldn't forget that stupid grin anywhere."

With a snap the two left Naruto's mindscape.

**Realm of Souls…**

"Well my boy?"

"I don't think I should trust a giant Kitsune aren't they suppose to be tricksters?" Naruto stated.

"You love making my job difficult" the Rikudou Sennin looked Naruto in the eyes as he said this.

"Rikudou-sama forgive my son." Minato bowed to the old man,

"As much as it pains me to admit Kurama was right about one thing, he will make a fine Kitsune." The old man smiled.

"Back up, I'm not a kitsune, I'm not a demon. I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm 100% all human." Naruto pounded his chest as he said that.

"I think we should go inside to have this discussion." The old man moved towards the door. "I think a privacy barrier would be smart don't you Minato?" the blonde gave a nod and placed a handful of paper talismans around the room in which they were going to talk.

"Now Naruto I think you should sit down." Minato gestured to the seat across from him. The old man sat next to him with a serious look on his face.

"You see Naruto yesterday you asked why you wouldn't be learning bend with Hinata it is because we know you have a better source of power at your disposal."

"You mean harness the chakra of the Kyuubi?"

"No, your own power." Minato really didn't know how to tell his son the truth. He stalled there unable to go on.

"Naruto you see there was a small problem with the seal that locks the Kurama away." The old man stated coldly. Naruto's eyes went wide in fear of what may be coming.

"So what I'm turning into a monster?"

"No, you see from the moment that Kurama was sealed into you, you were no longer a human." The old man was very straight foreword with the ten year old. "When you seal a tailed beast into a human we tend to user older people because their genes are not going to change like a baby's can."

"So what the villager's were right all along I was a demon?"

"No, Naruto you are not a demon, you are Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki. It doesn't matter what you blood makes you it is who you make yourself." Minato stepped in at the right time.

"If any of the first few tailed beasts had been the one sealed inside than nothing would have happened but after sealing so much power into asmall vessel with a very limited chakra network the beast's youkai was able to change the container."

"So how does that not make me a demon. Everything I have heard from you is: you are a demon, you are a demon, DEMON!" Naruto was getting mad. "So one day I'm going to snap and try and kill everything around me?"

"No, Kurama was being controlled every time he attacked anywhere." The old man explsained.

"That still doesn't say that my father turned me into a DEMON! An evil beast that lives to kill and destroy everything in comes across." Naruto tried to stand up but his legs weren't working.

"No, you are not a killer, or natural disaster. You are a young boy who can pick what he does with his life." Minato was trying to change his son's mind about his nature.

"Naruto we are sending you to a world in which there is no one, I repeat no one that can control you." The old man stated. "In your old world the tailed beasts are viewed as weapons, not the creatures they are." The old man got up and patted Naruto on the shoulder. "No one can make you do anything you don't want to."

"But I'm just some demon." Naruto was crying as he said those words.

"I think the best term is Kitsune, you are more than just some mindless beast. You are a person, a being of intelligence, you can learn from your mistakes and change your way." The old man had a smile on his face. "Just because you are different doesn't make you a beast."

"No matter what you will always be my son. Even if you hate me for the rest of your life. I love you, human, Kitsune, Ewok, or anything else that may be out there." Minato hugged his son for the first time since the day he was born. "You will always be Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki."

"You think?"

"No, I know. You see I can tell you are as stubborn as your mother, than means if you say you're going to do something that means it will happen." Minato looked his son in the eye. "So can you make me a promise?"

"What?"

"Promise that no matter what happens in the future, you will always remain true to who you are, don't do things that are against your code." Minato told his son. "Can you promise me that?"

"Yea, I can promise you that." Naruto felt his spirit lift a little. Maybe things weren't going to be as bad as he thought. But then something dawned on him, Hinata. He brought her here with a promise of being a new start together but he was going to be a kitsune and she was still going to be human. They would separate even if they were together.

"You are thinking about your friend that you brought here with you?" the old man asked.

"Yes, I made a promise to her that we could start over together." Naruto hung his head.

"Naruto for one so young you truly are a remarkable person. So when I will give you a gift." The old man smiled at Naruto. "But before I tell you what it is, I'm going to remove Kurama from the seal." The old man raised a hand and with a quick chop he knocked Naruto out cold.

"I guess it is better if he isn't awake to see what happens when your remove a tailed beast from its host." Minato stated.

"Yes, now let's get to work before we wakes." The Rikudou Sennin placed one hand on the seal and it glowed in a deep purple. Over the next hour or so they slowly removed the greatest of the tailed beasts from his current host. "Kurama try and stay out of trouble for a while." The large ball of light that was the current form of the beast seemed to nod before vanishing. After the ball of light vanished they looked at the spot were Naruto was and found a fox kit in the place where Naruto lay no more than a few seconds ago.

"Wow, I thought his fox form would be at least the size of the house." Minato wiped some sweat from his brow.

"He probably is."

"But he can't ne much bigger that a house cat right now."

"It seems our little furry friend left behind a gift of his own."

"Kyuubi?"

"Kurama, he has a name. and yes." The old man gave a short laugh. "My old friend seemed to give the boy a smaller true form to go along with his normal one."

"So there is this one, a bigger version of this and a human looking one?"

"Yes" the Rikudou Sennin placed his left hand over Naruto and the little fox was bathed in a gold light.

"What are you doing?"

"My gift to the boy." The old man pulled out a scroll and handed it to Minato. "when he regains his thumbs give this to him." Then he placed a second scroll next to the kit and then turned to leave.

"Wait what is the second scroll?"

"A few various Kitsune techniques, and some basic lore for him" A even bigger smile appeared on the old man's face. "I made that so even a little kit like him could open it. Well this is goodbye, Minato." The old man walked to the door, opened it then walked out.

A little while later Kushina and Hinata came back, each carrying two armfuls of shopping bags. Minato walked over a kissed his wife on the forehead. "I take it shopping went well."

"Yes, we accomplished a lot." Kushina then turned to head up stairs and unload her payload of clothing. After unloading it all Kushina came back downstairs and started looking for her son. As she searched the house she passed by the orange fox kit a hew times an even gave the little thing a few good scratches.

"Have you found him yet?" Minato asked his puzzled looking wife.

"No, I know that Rikudou-sama wanted to remove the Kyuubi from Naruto but he isn't in bed resting." Kushina sat down at the table where the little fix kit was and picked it up and placed it in her lap. She slowly stroked the fox's fur as she thought about where he son might be. At this point Minato was doing everything humanly possible to keep from cracking under the pressure of not telling her. "Maybe… no I looked there... and there…" it was too much and Minata broke his straight face and started laughing uncontrollably.

"" Minato was on the ground laughing.

"And what is so funny?"

"Just do me…HA a favor and…HA think about…HAHA everything that…HAHAHA the Rikudou… HAHA sennin told…HA us" Minato got the sentence in between laughs.

"Well he was going to remove the Kyuubi from Naruto" she stroked the fox's fur again. "That Naruto wasn't going to be able to bend like Hinata will be able to." This time she rubbed the belly of he kit in her lap and she got what sounded like purring out of the small kit. "And that Naruto…" She stopped petting the kit. "…wasn't going to be…" she picked the kit up and brought it to eye level. ",,,human anymore." apparently the word 'anymore' was the word to bring a sleeping kit out of its slumber and crack its eyes open just enough for the unmistakable blue eyes that Naruto has to catch the light and look at his mother.

"Ka-san? How did you get so big?" the kit got scared at the fact that his mother was holding him up with very little effort. Naruto had no clue what was going on the last thing that he remembered was the old man knocking him out. "The damm old man he shrunk me."

"Naruto, he didn't shrink you in the way you think."

"What do you mean?" Naruto lifted his paw to eye level and saw that it was infact a paw of a fox kit not a person like he was use to. "I'LL KILL THAT OLD MAN HE TURNED ME INTO A FOX!"

"Naruto calm down." Minato walked over to his son turned fox and flicked him on the snout. "This is just one of the forms that you have because of the changes you went through."

"NO ONE TOLD ME THAY I WOULD TURN INTO A FOX!"

"Are you really surprised?"

"YES!"

"I mean we told you that you were going to be a Kitsune so it only makes sense that you take form of a fox." Minato explained calmly.

"I thought I was going to learn to turn into the fox from HUMAN FORM NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!"

"Well then look at this like learning a new move." Kushina repositioned the kit in her arms and stroked the little kit making Naruto purr. This continued until Hinata came down from unpacking all the clothing that they had bought that day.

"Kushina have you seen Naruto? I was wondering if he wanted to go to the hot springs?" Hinata came down dressing in the same yukata that Kushina had given her that morning,

"Oh good. Hinata come and see the fabulous purring kit." Kushina held up Naruto and then rubbed his stomach and a low purring was heard throughout the room. Everyone was getting a good kick out of the sounds Naruto was making but Hinata asked again where Naruto was.

"He is around her somewhere." Minato looked around while Kushina wrapped her hand around Naruto's snout to keep him from talking. Hinata began searching the house for Naruto as well but she had no luck at all. "Ok I think it is time to tell her."

"Fine, ruin all my fun." Kushina pouted as she continued to pet Naruto.

"Hinata this little fox is Naruto."

"WHAT?" Hinata looked at the two in disbelief. From there the two adults explained everything to Hinata. Naruto did his best to curl up into the smallest ball possible as she was told everything. That she had given her life up for a new one with a kitsune. Hinata reached across the table and picked Naruto up out of his mother's lap and then began to pet him.

"You're not made at me?" Naruto looked up at the girl.

"No, you are the first person to ever try and be nice to me for no reason. Everyone else either avoided me because I was the heir to the Hyuuga or they sucked up to me because of my position. Naruto you tried to be nice to me for no reason other than to be nice." Hinata petted the boy turned fox as she said this and he couldn't think of a better place to be.

**A week later…**

Over the past week Naruto and Hinata had begun their training for their new home. Naruto started with turning back into a human, he was able to complete the transformation but the problem was that if he lost his concentration than he very quickly turned back into his fox form. He also began the work on what the scroll called Kitsune-be or fox fire. This blue fire was the purest expression of his youkai that he could control, he was trying to work his fire into the taijutsu style his father was teaching him but every time he did it exploded on him.

Hinata on the other hand was having very little problems adapting to her new gift. When she had been told about the four types of bending she had assumed that she was going to be taught earth bending because that is the basis of the Juuken. But when she arrived at her first day of training her sensei had proved her wrong. She was more flexible than your average Hyuuga so Juuken would never work as well as someone who was a more rigid fighter. So Hinata began the basics of Water bending, which she picked up on quite quickly.

**Three years later…**

Hinata and Naruto stood across from each other each waiting for the other to make the first move. Hinata was wearing an updated version on her old outfit, with a few changes. First was her coat was not a dark lavender color that off set her tan pants, she had on kung fu slippers on her feet so her could have grip with out being weighted down. The major change was the fact that her jacket hung open revealing the tight top she wore underneath, and her hair had grown down to the middle of her back and was tied back in a braid. She had two containers that held water for her to bend strapped to her back. Minato had used his seals and tripled the capacity with none of the weight.

Naruto stood waiting with his hands hanging loosely to the sides of his body. His training in the fox fire had been a lot more laborious then Hinata's. Without a proper teacher for his Kitsune skills, they were all self taught, but the constant sparing with Hinata, his mother and father Naruto had almost perfected his demonic fire. Now dressed in a pair of loose black pants with a pair of black kung fu slippers on as well, under a blue coat was a orange t-shirt with the Kanji for fire fox printed on it. He wore a black headband, to hold back his shaggy blonde hair, with a metal plate on it with another kanji as well this one was the kanji for the number nine and a katana strapped to his waist.

The two young fighters stood ready to go but it was Hinata's patience that won out. Naruto jumped forward and brought his right leg back into a kicking position as he got closer to Hinata he waited for her to make a move so he could intercept her movement with another kick. Hinata did just that and she brought herself right in line with Naruto's left leg. With a quick motion Naruto's leg was aimed right for Hinata's head. Hinata did the one thing she could think of, she grabbed Naruto by the leg and then threw him away.

"I see mom had been drilling strength training into you." Naruto landed on his feet like a cat. "Should we take this up a level?" a blue fire danced across his skin. Hinata nodded and then with a smooth motion brought out a portion of the water she carried. The two traded blows; fire verse water, broadness verse precision, the two were opposites. Naruto's way of doing things was to burn it to a crisp while Hinata would beat her enemy down with a few precise hits. Their match lasted for some time before Naruto's ungodly amount of stamina gave him the edge to end the match.

"Good spar, Naruto-kun." Hinata stood up and bowed to her friend and sparing partner. He no longer stuttered when she talked to people, it seemed spending large amounts of time with Naruto's mother slowly worked that out of her system.

"You too Hinata, I can see that you have been getting stronger, with and without your bending." Naruto returned the bow before he opened the door to the training hall and headed outside. Hinata wasn't sure what drew the Kitsune to nature if it was part of his nature or the freedom he had when surrounded by nothing but endless grass and plants but she could tell Naruto was already relaxing. Their training hall was in the forest well outside the city part of the realm so Naruto's fire didn't destroy anything if he misjudged an attack. Naruto sat down on the grass and listened to the wind blow through the trees, the smell of the forest was intoxicating to him almost as much as Hinata's.

Naruto had never admitted it to Hinata but he loved the way she smelled, the crisp cool ocean breeze with a hint of lavender thrown in was more addictive to Naruto than anything, even ramen. As Naruto sat outside Hinata leaned against the door of their training hall and watched the Kitsune. She was amazed at the amount of control and power he has over his powers, she could think of at least on person back in Konoha that would have gone on a power trip. Tired of watching the person of her interest Hinata walked over to the person and sat down next to him.

"Naruto, it is getting late. I think we need to start heading back soon." Hinata rested her head on the blondes shoulder. She reached up and played with the tips of his ears and the red points in his hair.

"I know but before we head back, I want to ask you something." Naruto pushed Hinata off his shoulder so they could look at each other face to face. "I know now that it was you who use to follow me when we were younger, but I have to know was that just some misguided crush or do you have real feelings for me?"

"When we were younger I had a huge crush on you. Just like know we are opposites, you took the mean looks of the people around you and still stood up for who you were. I liked that aspect of you, so I use to follow you hoping you would rub off on me." Hinata looked her friend in the eye, the same blue eyes that she remembered stared back at her. "But since we have come here, and I have gotten to know you on a personal level…"

"You can't stand me." Naruto looked down at the ground.

"What has your mother told you about cutting people off?" Hinata put a hand under his chin and picked his head up.

"That it is rude and I shouldn't do it."

"Good boy" Hinata patted him on the head. "I was going to say that the crush has turned into turn feelings for you Naruto." She looked at the person sitting across from her, and worked up all the courage she could and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Both teens started blushing so they just sat there in confusion.

"Let's get back to the house." Naruto stood up and then helped Hinata to her feet. He stretched out his back and then he started his transformation into his youkai form. His full demon form, he used his transformation powers to keep his size to the size of a horse, he had five tails that were tipped with black. "Just climb on, I don't like being in this form." Crouched down so Hinata could climb on, after she had a good hold of Naruto's fur, he took off towards town.

Once Naruto got to the outskirts of town he jumped up and landed on the rooftops so he could continue running without running into people on the streets. It took about ten minutes for Naruto and Hinata to arrive back at the house. Once they arrived Naruto shifted back into his human form and followed Hinata into the house.

"We're home." Hinata kicked off her shoes and walked into the living room. She saw Kushina, Minato and some old man sitting in the room. "Is something wrong?"

"Come sit down, we have to talk." Minato told them.

"Is something wrong?" Hinata looked worried.

"Don't worry you didn't do anything wrong."

"So what's up dad?" Naruto had come inside and stood behind Hinata. "Old man? What are you doing here?"

"It is time, you have to complete your task." The Rikudou Sennin stated. "You and Hinata have enough control over your powers, and the War is taking a turn for the worse."

"I understand, but can we get some information on what I have to do?" Naruto asked.

"You have to protect the Avatar, he is going to be in a grave amount of danger." The old man told Naruto. "There are going to be a lot of battles, and we need to end this war as soon possible."

"I understand, I gladly accept this honor and responsibility." Naruto stated.

"WE accept this." Hinata interjected. "Naruto and I will do everything in our power to protect the Avatar."

"Thank you Hinata." Naruto thanked the pale eyed girl.

"Good to know that you are taking this so serious." The Sennin smiled a little. "But before we send you off to save the world I have something for you, Naruto." The old man reached behind him and pulled out a long wrapped package, it was orange and blue with a swirl pattern. , he handed it over the table to the blonde.

"What is it?" Naruto looked at the long package and slowly untied the tie keeping it tied together. Naruto slid a sword out of the cloth, the entire sword was black except the parts of the hilt that the cloth didn't cover. Hanging from the end was a bit of chain with the Uzumaki swirl hanging from it, the sheath had the words 'demonic protector' carved in kanji on it. "This is beautiful, but I have no sword training?"

"We know but the sword has more than one purpose." Minato said. "The swords is to help you avoid loosing control of your demon powers." he handed a collection of scrolls to Naruto. "These can help you learn the sword"

"My control is fine." Naruto snapped back.

"I know that but you have never had anyone try and kill you after we had released your demonic powers. Spars and training can only do so much. Do you understand?"

"So this is more of making sure that I don't go crazy and start destroying villages?" the adults all nodded. "Than thank you."

"Ok now for Hinata." This time Kushina reached behind her back and pulled out a package. "I had the fur from Naruto woven into this for you." She pulled out a loose red Haori. "The brat's fur is like armor so it should help protect you."

"And I have these for you." Minato reached into his pocket and pulled out five Kunai. What Hinata noticed right away was that they were the kunai that made him famous. "I made then incase you and Naruto ever got separated. They are keyed into Naruto's youkai. All you have to do is throw one at the ground and Naruto will be flashed to the Kunai's location."

"So to put it in better terms you have his leash." Kushina stated. At that Naruto just hung his head.

"I'm not a dog, Mom." Naruto whined. His mother's response was to pat him on the head. "I dislike you."

"Well the only thing is we can't send you on your way dressed the way you are." The old sennin explained. " I hope everything fits." He pulled out two packages and handed them to the children.

As Naruto opened his he found a kimono-like top that would fall to mid-shin and hang open that was gray with a orange trim, and a pair of loose black kung fu pants, and a pair of black boots with orange trim as well. He also found as pair of brown bracers, he pulled off his head band and pulled the metal plate from it and affixed it to the long black cloth that had held the package together.

Hinata's package contained a similar top but hers was tan with lavender trim that was cut just below her waist. Her pants were navy and came down to the middle of her shins, and a pair of tan boots with lavender trim as well.

The two teens left the room and quickly changed into their new clothing, a little while later they returned and sat back down in front of the adults.

"So where are we being dropped off?" Naruto asked. The old man pulled out a scroll and unrolled it.

"We are dropping you two off in the Earth kingdom, the Avarat is heading north from the Southern Water Tribe. He is traveling with two Water Tribe children, one water bender and a young warrior." The Sennin pointed at a remote part of the largest land mass to a spot away from any major towns but probably no more than a half day's run from a port. "It should be along the route the Avatar is traveling."

"That is helpful." Hinata looked at the map again. "He could be traveling any route north, what makes you think he will stop at this port?"

"How about just a hunch?" the old man smiled with an evil grin. Hinata just sweat dropped and Naruto face-palmed.

"Fine, just tell us when we leave." Naruto stated.

"Right Now." The old man threw two tags at the teens and threw them at the teens. The tags attached themselves to Naruto and Hinata's chests and with a flash they were gone.

**Earth Kingdom…**

"That damm old man!" Naruto grumbled as he stood up. He turned to look at Hinata and then helped her up. "Come on we have to get to that port."

"Naruto, I think it's best if you stick to fox form until we meet the avatar." Hinata took his hand as she stood up.

"You just don't want to walk do you?" Naruto shifted into his youkai form but kept it to the size of a large horse. After Hinata climbed on she nudged Naruto to start running, he pumped a little yuokai into his feet so he could run faster. After an hour they reached the outskirts of the port the sennin had told them about, Hinata pulled a back on Naruto's fur to snap him out of his running. Once they stopped Hinata slid off his back and then stood next to the large fox.

"You best shrink yourself." Hinata patted the boy turned kitsune on the head. Slowly he began to shrink and his five tails turned into one. When he stopped shrinking he was the size of a large dog.

"Let's get to town, we need food." Naruto nudged Hinata in the leg. He started walking towards town with Hinata in tow. The two slowly made their way into down and found parts of it in shambles. Hinata walked up to a store and began shopping around.

"You'll have to keep that thing outside." The owner pointed at Naruto. Naruto growled at the woman but Hinata ushered him outside. Hinata made sure that Naruto was going to stay outside. "Sorry about the commotion in town, but some kids got into a tussle with some pirates."

"Kids? How many?"

"Three, they took off into the air somehow." The shop owner explained.

"One second." Hinata stuck her head out of the store and turned to a bored looking Naruto. "Go find a group of pirates that got into a tussle with a group of kids." Naruto nodded than took off into the town. After she was done with Naruto she finished her shopping and paid the lady.

Hinata walked around town looking for Naruto, and she found him sitting outside a store that sold dried meats. He sat there with a dazed look in his eyes, Hinata walked up and nudged him with her knee. Naruto looked up and than started smelling her bag for food.

"Just wait a bit than you can eat." She led Naruto out of town were they sat down and Hinata pulled out a hunk of meat and handed it to the fox. "Happy?"

"Yea, I found the pirates, they have teamed up with a ship from the Fire Navy to hunt down a girl who stole their scroll and a bald monk." Naruto ripped up the meat and then swallowed half. "I marked the captain of both ships and they are heading up the river."

"The river?"

"Yea, they stole a water bending scroll. So they are going to search the coast for the kids." Naruto swallowed the other half of the meat. "I can move faster, if we move out now we can get well ahead of them." Hinata agreed, so she waited for Naruto to shift back into his horse sized form. Once Naruto was done shifting Hinata climbed on and they were off into the woods.

For about two hours Naruto ran along the river staying out of sight of the pirates and Fire Nation as they passed. Naruto continued to run up the coast of the river until he stopped all the sudden. "I smell water benders" he began smelling the ground hoping to find a solid trail.

"Water benders, do our scents smell different?" Hinata asked.

"Yes, water benders have the smell of the ocean as an underlying part of their scent." Naruto picked his head up off the ground and sniffed the air. "That way." Naruto quickly jumped forward and started running again.

"Do you know how far?"

"About a mile" Naruto quickly dodged a tree. He was so close to starting his mission that he could almost taste it. Once he finished running the final distance to whom they hoped it was Naruto slowed down and stopped right before the trees opened to their camp sight.

"Nervous?" Hinata patted Naruto's head. "Do you want to change back?"

"Yea, it's better for them to learn a face of a human than a fox." Naruto sat down and Hinata slipped off his back. Once she was on the ground Naruto shifted to his human form and stretched his back. "I smell, fish, oil, animal skins, the ocean and some sort of spring breeze"

"Maybe that is the sign of an air bender." Hinata offered. Naruto nodded and then pushed his way through the woods into the camp of the three kids and large animal. The kids quickly reacted and each fell into a ready stance.

"STOP! WHO ARE YOU?" a boy dressed in blue clothing asked. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail on the top but the sides of his head were bald. "What do you want? Are you fire nation?"

"Wow, you are really blunt." Naruto sweat dropped slightly. "I'm not here to attack you or the avatar." Naruto put his hands up in a defensive sign.

"What do you want than?" this time the girl who was standing on the banks of the river asked. She was dressed in blue clothing like the boy, so Naruto guessed that these were the water tribe kids that were traveling with the avatar.

"To talk, we have been sent here to help the avatar with his job." Hinata put a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Look, before we get to story time let's get away from the banks of the river." Naruto adjusted the small pack on his back and then pointed off into the woods. "Those pirates you pissed off earlier are on the river looking for you, and there are fire nation people with him."

"Wait, how can we tell that you aren't leading us into a trap." The boy pulled a club like weapon from his stuff and brandished it.

"Look, if I wanted to take the avatar I could have before anyone could react." Naruto stated. "But in about an hour the people looking for you are going to be here." Naruto was getting a little mad, here he was trying to help them and the idiots were thinking he was the enemy.

"We will explain everything once we are safe." Hinata put pressure on Naruto's shoulder telling him to calm down. "We have to move about a mile or so inland."

"But we need to stay by the water, we have to try and learn the forms from the scroll." The girl stated with a little anger.

"What's more important, your life and keeping the avatar safe or learning some sort of new move?" Naruto was almost ready to grab all three by the collar and drag them away.

"I think we should trust them for right now, they don't seem to want to hurt us." The boy dressed in yellow and orange said, his bald head and arrows tattoo on all his limbs were very different. "I'm Aang." The boy walked over to Naruto and Hinata and introduced himself.

"I'm Naruto and this is Hinata." Naruto quickly introduced himself and his friend. "Now pack up quickly."

The three kids quickly picked up their supplies, and then headed deeper into the woods. For the next twenty minutes they tried to find a well covered area large enough for the bison named Aapa to lie down. Once they found a good area to camp they quickly started preparing the camp, Naruto and Hinata unrolled their sleeping bags and then headed off to do different things. Naruto was collecting fire wood and Hinata was searching for things to eat.

After the sun set the avatar's group sat across the fire from Hinata and Naruto, dinner had no interactions between the two groups. "Well, let's cut the awkward silence and get the introductions done." Naruto slipped the sword from his waist and placed it on the ground. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, born in Konohagakure, heir to the Kyuubi No Kitsune." He gave a small bow, "It is an honor to meet the avatar."

"I'm Hinata Hyuuga, also from Konohagakure, founder of the Hyuuga waterbending style." Hinata also bowed, "Like Naruto said it is an honor to meet you Avatar Aang."

"You're a water bender?" the girl asked. "My name is Katara, I'm a waterbender from the south pole."

"Yes, I'm a waterbender, but my training is far from complete." Hinata looked a little downtrodden.

"You'll have it mastered in a two years Hinata." Naruto rubbed the girls back. "May I ask who you are?"

"Oh, I'm Sokka from the Southern Water Tribe" Sokka stated. "I've never heard og this Konogahoga place, where is it?"

"Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves is not on any map of this world." Naruto stated. "Allow me to explain why we are here." Naruto sat back and leaned against a log he had dragged over to sit on. "Three years ago I was offered a chance to start my life anew in a new place, the person who offered this gave me time to think about it but the next day I was escorting Hinata home from school and we were attacked. During the attack I agreed to what ever conditions I had to, sadly during the attack Hinata was badly injured and so I convinced the person to allow Hinata a chance to start anew as well. She agreed and then we spent the next three years training, Hinata in water bending and I trained in the arts of the kitsune."

"Wait what's a kitsune?" Aang asked.

"A kitsune is a fox demon." The Avatar's group looked at Naruto in shock. Katara and Aang just sat their quietly.

Sokka on the other hand grabbed his club and pointed it at Naruto. "Leave, I want you and your beast to leave right now." He addressed this statement to Hinata. "Nothing good come from creatures like demons."

"Wait, please…"

"Aang, Katara step away from the demon, it could attack at any moment." Sokka readied his club for attack. Naruto on the other hand looked at Sokka with a cold glare. "Come on." He grabbed his sister's hand and pulled her away from the two across the fire from them.

"Wait, Sokka." Katara pulled her hand from his brother's grip. "Thya haven't done anything wrong, they warned us about the pirates and Fire Nation heading our way."

"One good deed doesn't make a monster not a monster…" Sokka never finished the sentence because Naruto threw himself across the fire and tackled the water tribe boy. Hinata quickly tried to call out to the enraged boy but her words weren't being heard. She reached into the pocket of her pants and pulled out on of the kunai that Minato had given her and stuck it in the ground with a quick throw.

Naruto was pulled off Sokka in a orange flash and he was back on the other side of the fire but Hinata had a firm grip on him to make sure he didn't attack Sokka again. Aang stood up and got ready for another attack while Katara checked on her brother.

"Naruto, calm down." Hinata pulled Naruto into a hug and tried to soothe the angry boy. Naruto swore and struggled but Hinata turned a little of the moisture from the air into water and froze it so he couldn't escape. "If you don't calm down, I'll ban ramen for a month."

"You wouldn't, would you?" Naruto looked at the girl holding him.

"In a heart beat." Hinata stated, Kushina had taught her how to control her son, by threat of withholding ramen. "Now calm down."

"Fine" Naruto shifted out of human form and into his small fox form. He curled up in Hinata's lap, covering his face from the rest of the group. "stupid idiots."

"I'm sorry about what Naruto did but he tends to react with action not words." Hinata started petting the boy turned fox as she said that. "Naruto has had a hard life, and he thought that when he got his new start people might actually refer to him as a person."

"Well he isn't a person." Sokka had regained enough strength the state another rude comment. "He's a demon who tried to kill me."

"It is a defense he puts up." She tried to get the fox to react to her scratching but Naruto had pulled himself from the world and into his own mind. "For the first ten years of his life he was treated terribly in our village. He grew up without any parents and the entire village wanted him dead." Katara and Aang were looking at the fox in Hinata's lap with questionable looks.

"Of course, no village would want a demon living there." Sokka had recovered and now sat behind Aang and Katara.

"Naruto wasn't born a demon." Hinata stated. "I'll start at the beginning. I ask that you don't interrupt me, thirteen years ago a giant demon attacked our village. The people of the village did everything possible to hold the beast off but it was useless. Our leader decided the best way to defeat the beast was to seal it away in a new born baby, so at the cost of his life she did so, that baby was Naruto his own child. Naruto's mother had died in childbirth not minutes before; Naruto was orphaned no more than an hour after born. There was a problem with the seal and the demon sealed inside Naruto started turning him into a demon because his power leaked through the seal. For ten years Naruto was treated worse than the dirt on the street and I can only think of four maybe five people who called him by his name and referred to him as a person not a thing." Hinata looked down at Naruto in her lap and wiped a tear from her eye. "One day when we were ten my father branded me with a seal of my own, I was thrown out of my family and into the branch house, the house of the servants. Naruto saw that something was bothering me that day so when things turned for the worse he tried to take me home. We were attacked by the villagers that day, Naruto took the brunt of the attack and when I tried to get them to stop they hit me over the head and cracked my skull. It was then that Naruto had accepted the offer of the new life, a man named Roku had offered Naruto anew life but Naruto refuse and said that he would only go along with it if I was given a new chance as well. He even offered his soul for mine if I wanted to go back to my village. But I accepted the offer from Roku to start anew here in this world." Hinata explained what she could.

"So why did he attack Sokka?"

"Naruto still let's his instincts react for him somethings and the words demon, it, thing, creature are words that the people who beat Naruto used. He thought you were going to attack, so he attacked first." Hinata stroked the fox's fur. "He wasn't coming at you with the intent to kill because if he had, it wouldn't be pretty. I can see the marks were he stopped himself from ripping out your throat."

"What?" Katara looked at her brother's throat and found a collection of finger sized bruises around his neck.

"Please just call him Naruto, he actually is really nice once you get to know him." Hinata picked up the fox on her lap and showed it to the people. "He does this to avoid any more prosecution."

"Naruto, I'm sorry my brother is an idiot." Katara stated, she cast a dark look at her brother.

"Yea, I'm sure that you're a nice person." Aang said with a happy smile on his face. "Let's be friends." He knelt down to the fox and looked him in the eye but Naruto was unresponsive.

"I think he wants an apology from Sokka." Hinata pointed at the ponytailed boy.

"Sokka, go say you're sorry." Katara ordered her brother. "If he hadn't come along than the fire nation could have captured Aang."

"Fine… I'm sorry." Sokka rolled his eyes as he said it. He got whacked on the head by Katara. "Ok, Naruto I'm sorry." This time Naruto looked up and into Sokka's eyes.

"I'll give you one more chance." Naruto said scaring the boy in front of him. Naruto thand shifted back into his human form. "I guess I should finish the reason why we are here. Avatar Roku sent me here to help you bring balance to the world."

"Roku sent you? Than you're ok in my book." Aang gave the blonde an approving look.

"Thank you, Aang." Naruto gave the arrow boy a pat on the shoulder. "It's getting late, we should get some sleep." Naruto went back to his sleeping bag and laid down on top of it with out climbing in.

"I guess this is good night." Hinata followed Naruto over to their side of camp. "Relax Naruto, it was a simple misunderstanding."

"Hinata, I'll never be accepted by normal people, they'll always hate me for what I am."

"Naruto, that isn't true." Hinata wrapped her arms around his neck. "Just give Sokka time, you have a way with people."

"Fine" Naruto hugged Hinata back. "Good night." Naruto laid back on the top of his sleeping bag and closed his eyes. Hinata nodded and then went over to her own sleeping bag and crawled inside.

"Good night Naruto." Hinata fell asleep not long after that.

Around midnight Naruto was awoken by his senses, the first was a rustling and the other was that the two ship captains that he had marked earlier were now with in a mile or so of them. They didn't seem to be moving closer so Naruto guessed they were still thinking they were on the water. Naruto than looked up and saw Katara sneaking away from camp, he figured it was a bathroom emergency so he rolled over and fell back asleep.

******** THE NEXT MORNING********

"She took the scroll." Sokka had gotten up and saw that his sister was gone. Just as he started looking for her a net come from nowhere and captured Aang. Naruto quickly reacted and cut Aang free but another net was sent his way and it captured both the blonde and the bald monk.

"Hinata, help." Naruto shouted as he was being pulled off. But she was grabbed as well before she could help anyone.

"Hey am I not good enough to be captured?" as Sokka said this a rope wrapped around his chest and dragged him away. The group was bound and brought before the pirate crew and the Fire nation soldiers.

"Ok, we have the boy, not give us the scroll." The captain of the crew ordered the Fire Nation leader. The leader of the Fire Nation troops was a teenager not much older than Naruto, he had most his black hair shaved off except a ponytail on the crown of his head. His most notable feature was the two toned scar that covered his left eye.

"First we get the boy." The boy demanded. "Unless you want to see your scroll go up in flames." The scared teen created some flames and held them under the scroll.

"Aang I'm sorry this is all my fault." Katara was tied to a tree behind the hire nation side.

"No, it not your fault." Aang stated while he blushed a little.

"Yea, it is." Naruto stated loud enough. "If you had stayed at camp we would have been fine."

"He is right you know." The old man dressed in Fire Nation clothing stated.

"Are you guys really going to trade the Avatar for a piece of parchment?" Sokka took that moment to speak up. Naruto let out a groan and Hinata sighed, Aang looked worried along with Katara. "I mean the Fire Lord would probably pay an ungodly amount of money to have the Avatar.

"Sokka Shut up." Naruto kicked the boy in the shins. "Ignore him"

"Don't listen to him he trying to turn us against each other." The scared boy yelled

"Keep the scroll, we'll keep the boy." The captain of the pirates stated and than turned around and headed back for his boat.

"You'll regret going back on a deal you made with me." The teen threw a kick and a stream of fire erupted from his foot. At this the pirates protected their captain and than they dashed forward towards and threw a bunch of smoke bombs to hide in. Once everyone was hidden from view Naruto shifted into his smallest form and than slipped out of his ropes. He sniffed around and found Hinata not far off, he walked over and quickly bit through the ropes that kept her tied up.

"Hinata let's get out of here." He hopped up her shoulder and pointed them out of the smoke. As they did this Aang and Sokka were also making their way away from the smoke. Katara had been released by Momo so she was standing at the pirates boat trying to push it in. "I guess she probably wants help."

"We have to get this boat in the water." Katara tried pushing the ship again.

"Katara we would need a team of rhinos to move this ship." Sokka stated.

"Or two water benders." Aang smiled at Katara.

"Make that three, Aang." Hinata started bringing in the tide to get the come in so the boat would float. It was easy work with the tree water benders so they had the boat floating in no time flat. Once everyone was on board they followed the current down stream. "Does anyone know how to steer this thing?"

"No, it's not from the water tribe." Sokka stood behind the wheel and tried to do something.

"We'll use the ship at the final confrontation point." Naruto jumped off Hinata's shoulder and shifted back to his human form. "Let's get ready because their catching up."

"Ok be ready." The group of the Avatar watched at the pirates jumped from the Fire nation ship they commandeered and onto their ship. Hinata and Katara used their water bending to knock the pirates off the ship, Aang just blew a bunch one of the edge of the boat and into the sail. Sokka was getting beaten up by two pirates when Naruto interfered and threw one off the boat and the other towards Hinata who had her back turned. Naruto figured the man was out cold so he didn't worry until he saw the guy get back up and raised his weapon and was about to strike down Hinata.

"NO!" Naruto jumped at the pirate and on instinct his hands ignited in the blue fire he was accustom to using. Once he got in between the pirate and his crush, and drove his fist into the guy's chest and it exploded sending the pirate over the edge engulfed in blue fire that didn't go out once he hit the water. Naruto then looked at his hands and then at Hinata who looked at him in shock, "You OK?" Hinata just threw herself into his arms and hugged him.

"As touching as that is, we have a small problem." Sokka pointed ahead of them at the waterfall. As he did that the last pirate on the ship had cornered Aang and pulled a short sword from his waist. "Aang watch out." Aang pulled out the whistle that he had bought and gave it a blow. The pirate was about to swing his sword when Sokka kicked him over the railing. "Are you crazy this isn't time for flute practice."

"Aang, Hinata help me stop the boat." Katara ran to the bow of the ship and started a flowing motion. "Push and pull the water." The three water benders created a back pull and it created a whirlpool that stopped the ship in its tracks. "We're doing it."

"I know" Aang was happy that he was helping by using water bending.

"That's great, but we have another problem" Sokka pointed at the Fire Nation ship and than looked at Naruto. The boat was rammed in the side and began to flip over.

"JUMP!" Naruto grabbed Hinata around the waist and than jumped out over the falls. As they started falling Aapa made an appearance and saved them from a painful fall off the waterfall.

"Aapa, nice save." Aang hugged the large bison. "I knew a bison whistle would come in handy." The air bender held up the whistle that was shaped like a bison.

"Great. I though I may have had to go full size to save us." Naruto let out a sigh. Hinata refused to let go of him and so he really couldn't move. "Just take us back to camp."

"Are you going to be ok, Naruto?" Hinata let up on her hug just a little.

"I'm fine, it was the first time I took a life and sadly I don't think it will be the last." Naruto lifted his hand and saw that his claws were covered in the pirates blood, the scent was slowly overcoming his senses. But with a deep breath the blue fire surrounded his hand and burned the blood off.

"I know, but you have to keep true to who you are." Hinata whispered into his ear.

"I just have to get my sword; it should help keep my blood from boiling." Naruto shut his eyes and took one deep breath after another.

"Why didn't you tell us you were a fire bender?" Katara looked over at the pair and asked Naruto.

"Once we get back to camp I'll explain." Hinata answered for the kitsune. The trip back was silent as they were all curious on how Naruto was able to control fire.

Once they got back to the camp Naruto quickly grabbed his swords and slipped it inside his sash around his waist. Once he had that a visable weight was lifted from his shoulders and he went back to the fire pit and sat down on the log from the night before. He brought a small flame to life and lit the fire, "I guess I have a few questions to answer."

"Yea, why didn't you tell us you're a fire bender?" Sokka sat down across from him and gave him a cold look. "You didn't tell us you had ties to the Fire Nation."

"For the last time I don't have any connection to the Fire Nation."

"You're a fire bender, and every fire bender is Fire Nation." Sokka pointed a accusing finger at him.

"Sokka let him explain." Katara sat down and waited for Naruto to give a explanation. "So tell us, where did you learn to fire bend?"

"Katara it isn't fire bending, those blue flames are powered a symbol of his status as a Kitsune" Hinata sat down next to Naruto. "They are powered by his youkai, the energy of demons. They can only be extinguished by a kitsune of equal strength or greater."

"My Kitsune-bi may look like fire bending, but it is just a physical manifestation of my power, just like my illusions and transformation." Naruto looked at the blue fire burning in the fire pit. Once the wood caught fire his flames mixed with the normal orange flames, so he put them out with his youkai. "Fox fire is the attack of a Kitsune like me. It is a lot like fire bending but it isn't the same."

"So you use fire but you aren't a fire bender?" Katara asked.

"Yes, so I can't teach Aang fire bending when it comes time." Naruto looked at the fire burning in the pit.

"So you said that only a kitsune like yourself could put out your flames, so what happened to the man you hit with it?" Aang got a worried look on his face.

"Dead, burnt to death probably before he hit the bottom of the waterfall." Naruto never looked Aang in the eyes.

"How can you stay so calm? You just took a life." Aang got right in Naruto's face. "The monks always said that every life is sacred no matter what."

"I know and I agree but my instinct kicked in and it just happened." Naruto looked up at Aang, his eyes were filled with pain. "I never wanted it to happen but when I saw Hinata in trouble my demonic side took over." Naruto pushed Aang back and than looked away.

"So you can't control it?" Sokka stepped back.

"Most of the time I have no problem but this is the first time that I have had to fight in a life or death situation." Naruto pulled the sword from his sheath. "This sword is designed to limit the bloodlust that my youkai pumps through my system until I get use to controlling it."

"Bloodlust?" Aang asked.

"As much as I hate to say it but I am a demon and with that a lust for battle and blood comes with the territory." Naruto told them. "I also relied on the instincts of a demon and to protected Hinata."

"But that sword suppresses that?"

"Yea, as long as I have this in reach my bloodlust is reduced to almost nothing." He slid the sword back into its sheath and looked at the three across from him. "I guess I have lost your trust, we were hoping to come with you but I guess we will just follow from the shadows." Naruto went back to his sleeping bag and lay down.

"You have to understand, Naruto is still getting accustom to his powers so please just understand that he hates taking a life just as much as Aang." Hinata explained. "He was gifted with a lot of power and he is still quite young."

"What do you mean?"

"Naruto is a five tailed Kitsune, and for a thirteen year old that is a lot of power."

"Five tails?" Sokka and Aang looked over at Naruto. "I don't see any tails."

"Yea and when he transformed into a fox last night he only had one tail." Katara added in.

"Naruto has two main forms, that small fox that you saw last night and a multi tailed form. I've never actually seen him at his full size, he probably would be over thirty feet tall and maybe fifty feet long. He can change the size of his forms at will so he I've never seen him bigger than a horse."

"Really?" all three kids asked.

"Yea, but like I said he is really young to have that many tails." Hinata looked across the fire. "It usually takes a Kitsune a minimum of fifty years to gain a new tail. But when a kitsune's life is in danger it can grow a new tail as a form of protection."

"So growing up the attacks forced Naruto to grow his extra tails." Katara stated.

"No only three of them, the fifth tail he trained himself to the max for three years and it was enough to gain the fifth tail."

"Wow, fifty years of training compressed into three" Aang looked over at Naruto.

"I think that he was only a few years away from gaining it so it just happened while we were training." Hinata looked over at Naruto.

"I understand, since he was just given a mass amount of power he has problems controlling it" Katara explained. Hinata just nodded.

"I guess we'll leave in the morning." Hinata stood up and walked over to Naruto and her gear.

For a little while the group stared at the two and said nothing. Aang and Katara cleaned up their camp and Sokka sorted through their food supplies. As night approached Katara was making dinner on the same fire pit as Hinata while Naruto practiced his sword work. Sokka looked over to the kitsune in wonder watching him flash through forms in a almost invisible speed. Aang was pondering what Hinata had told them about Naruto's power.

"Sokka, Katara can we talk." Aang walked over to the siblings. Seeing this Hinata pulled the small pot off the fire and walked away to give them privacy.

"Sure Aang what do you want to talk about?" Sokka answered.

"I think that Hinata and Naruto should travel with us." Aang said. Sokka was the only one who hesitated.

"I don't know Aang he can't control his powers."

"He didn't really have a choice, all that power was thrown on him." Katara said. "You can tell he's doing his best, and the sword helps him."

"Look it's up to Aang but I'm uneasy with this." Sokka looked over at Naruto who was still running through the sword forms.

"He said that he was going to follow us any way so why not just have them travel with us." Aang said happily. Katara nodded in agreement while Sokka just shrugged. "I'll go tell them." Aang jumped across the clearing and landed next to Hinata. "Hinata, we would like you and Naruto to travel with us."

"That's great Aang thank you." Hinata scooped out some of the food she was making and than onto a small plate. "Naruto, dinner." This call made Naruto stop mid swing and then sheathed his sword.

"Thank you Hinata, and you to Aang." Naruto accepted the bowl and than sat down.

"Wait you heard me?"

"Yea, it helps that I have extremely good hearing." Naruto smiled. "It is an honor to be able to travel with you."

"We'll leave in the morning." Aang said and then walked back to the Water Tribe siblings. Not long after that the entire camp was fed and so they all fell asleep.

**Well I hope you like it. My Naruto/Avatar:TLA crossover. Things turned out how I liked so I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing. **

**I'm not going to write every chapter from the show but the ones that I like so there is a lot just going along with the cannon.**

**Will**

**PS this is my longest chapter EVER! 35 pages!**


End file.
